RAMBO V: The Return or Retirement of Sylvester Stallone’s Title Character?

In the 1982 action-thriller First Blood, Sylvester Stallone made John Rambo into a household name. ¬†Then, in 2008, Stallone returned to reprise the role in the aptly titled picture¬†Rambo, which many thought would be the actor’s farewell to the character since it quite literally is a homecoming of sorts. ¬†However, Stallone’s been mulling a fifth picture in the years since the last film, and if a press release from a German media company is to be believed, then Stallone is back for¬†Rambo V. ¬†Hit the jump for more.

With¬†“Rambo V”¬†Sylvester Stallone returns to his signature role.¬†This time he messes with the Mexican cartel.¬†Stallone, who is also responsible for the screenplay, describes the new Rambo as his version of “No Country for Old Men.”¬†Producer is like the last “Rambo”, Avi Lerner (“The Expendables 1-3″).

We’ve heard lots of different versions of this film over the years. ¬†Nearly five years ago, we heard that Rambo would be taking on “Mexican drug cartels and human traffickers in an attempt to rescue an American girl kidnapped near the border.” ¬†That seems to jibe with what this new press release reports, so hopefully that’s what Stallone’s been working on all this time. ¬†Then again, Stallone himself said the plot would center around a military lab located in the Pacific Northwest that experiments on soldiers, and then he said it’d be that first plot but set in a foreign country. ¬†At one point during his efforts on¬†The Expendables¬†movies, he debated on whether or not to make¬†Rambo V his¬†Unforgiven¬†or if he’d decide to pass the torch onto someone else.

So, at this moment, it remains to be seen just what will become of the¬†Rambo franchise, especially since the previous film failed to find a domestic audience and didn’t even make a big splash with international audience as it only brought in just north of $113 million. ¬†The closest you’ll get to seeing Sly as Rambo in the near future is when he reprises his role of Barney Ross in¬†The Expendables 3, opening August 15th.